Winds were strong Saturday afternoon gusting to 40 mph at times. Once the cloud cover moved in it turned rather chilly. Sunday was quite the opposite; plenty of sunshine, light winds, and comfortable temperatures. Highs area wide warmed into the upper 50s.

Under a mostly clear evening temperatures will begin to fall as the sun sets. Cloud cover will gradually increase through the night, but likely won’t have too much of an impact on temperatures through the night. This means overnight lows will dip into the upper 30s.

Skies will turn partly sunny on Monday as the leading edge of warm air lifts through Iowa, into northern Illinois. This could lead to a few spotty showers or two during the morning. Temperatures will warm into the low 60s with an isolated thunder chance during the afternoon. The warm air really begins to increase Tuesday bringing temperatures into the middle 70s during the afternoon. Southwest winds will also increase, gusting to around 30 mph.

The majority of the shower/storm activity will remain to the northwest during the afternoon, but an isolated storm can’t be ruled out, especially near the state line. Rain chances will increase Tuesday night and Wednesday, but temperatures should stay in the 60s. We may see another climb in highs Thursday, reaching the upper 60s. Scattered rain showers are likely both Thursday and Friday. Highs through the week remain above average (average high is in the upper 50s, to right around 60 degrees) before likely falling back towards Halloween.

A strong cold front is expected to come through but may stall until the weekend. If so, temperatures through at least Friday stay above average with highs then falling into the 50s by the weekend, and then possibly 40s to start November.